John Ely

My research interest is in primate epidemiology and the evolutionary origins of differential human/chimpanzee disease susceptibilities. Specifically, I am involved with long-term follow-up studies of morbidity and mortality trends in aging populations of former research chimpanzees.  I apply non-invasive observational epidemiological study designs, with biostatistical and phylogenetic analyses, to analyze health and disease trends.  Data sources include archival clinical data (blood pressure, body weight, clinical chemistry/hematology), laboratory data (biomarkers, DNA sequence, DNA markers) and pedigree data.  I am interested in subspecific differences in clinical traits, disease susceptibility, and the genomic bases of diseases that differ markedly between chimpanzees and humans, in terms of clinical presentation or population prevalence, including Alzheimer Disease and HIV/AIDS.